James Corden and wife Julia Carey at the 70th annual Tony Awards last year

Other than the odd food-induced guilt trip, the 39-year-old’s American success story has been nothing short of a dream.

He’s become a US household name and YouTube sensation on the CBS chat show, making a small fortune in the process from the now-iconic Carpool Karaoke franchise, and even being picked to host the Grammy Awards.

I remind James that before leaving for Hollywood he was convinced the venture would end in failure and he would soon be back with his tail between his legs.

James Corden speaks on stage during the 60th Annual GRAMMY awards in New York

“It’s funny, because before I got here I’d say the same to friends and family that I said to you, and I couldn’t have been more serious.

“When we moved here we rented a house and we rented furniture because I remember saying to Jules, my wife, ‘There’s no point buying anything because we’re just going to have to try to sell it and inevitably leave it a garage somewhere, let’s just rent furniture’.

“In truth, history’s littered with people who’ve come and tried to make a show or something in America and it hasn’t worked.

There’s such a level of ownership to these late night shows that a chubby guy from High Wycombe, who hasn’t ever really hosted a talk show before . . . the odds were so stacked against us.”

The Late Show segment: Carpool Karaoke has introduced Corden to a revolving door of celebrities.

That’s not to say there haven’t been challenges, with James recently hinting a move back to Britain might be on the cards because he struggles with homesickness.

But in the new episode of The Dan Wootton Interview podcast — which you can subscribe to for free now on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts — he wants to set the record straight.

Yes, he’s found it tough at times being away from family for long stretches, especially his parents given the age of his children with TV producer wife Julia Carey, 37 — Max, six, Carey, three, and three-month-old Charlotte.

But James, who voices the lead role in new blockbuster Easter movie Peter Rabbit, remains committed to the show and life in LA for many years to come.

Corden is set to star in this years upcoming kid’s movie: Peter Rabbit

He explains: “Normally we’ll always come home in summer and Christmas. But this year my wife was pregnant and our daughter was born quite a few weeks early, actually.

“But we couldn’t have flown back anyway and she was born in the middle of December, so it basically means we haven’t been back in London since June.

“It’s just a stretch, that’s all it is. In truth, it is home. I’m just very, very conscious that there are people there that I would love to have a deeper relationship with.

There’s grandparents that I would like to have a deeper relationship with my children, their grandchildren.

‘I want to work with Ruth Jones again but it might not be for Gavin & Stacey’

BRINGING back cult comedy Gavin & Stacey is something James has not ruled out.

BRINGING back cult comedy Gavin & Stacey is something James has not ruled out. He wants to team up again with co-creator and co-star Ruth Jones, 51, but will only reprise his character, Essex plumber Smithy, for “an incredible idea”.
James, who is pictured with Ruth, Mathew Horne and Joanna Page, said: “I would be really upset if I never wrote with Ruth again because I feel there is still something for us to do. But I could never say that it would be Gavin & Stacey.
“I’ve seen other shows come back and sometimes it works and other times you feel kind of let down by it.
“We would always want to try to make it something that people would love and enjoy.
“So I’d never say never. An idea might land and you’d go, ‘Ooh, that’s a thing’ but so far we haven’t had that feeling.”

“So it just really depends on what day you catch me, as to how I’m feeling. But I’m very, very happy here and I’m having a really quite amazing time in our lives right now.

“Like, my son is in school right now and very, very happy.

“In truth it’s just people, it’s people, that’s the thing. I would love to do this job for many, many more years. I mean contractually I have to, but that’s not a bad thing.”

And there is a strong expat community of Brits in Hollywood, in- cluding Adele, Simon Cowell and Robbie Williams. James says: “Robbie organises Fifa tournaments at his house. He’s got this TV the size of most people’s homes and you sit and play Fifa and the tournaments take about four or five hours.

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‘It’s a wonderful job for staying in touch’

“Inevitably he always wins so I think he might have even rigged it.

“It’s also really nice doing the show where lots of people come in.

“So a few weeks ago a very dear friend of mine, Matt Smith, was on the show.

While James has had to turn down multiple major TV, acting and music offers because of the huge time commitment of making his show five nights a week, he always tries to remember “the grass isn’t always greener”.

‘Editing The Sun was the perfect training for the chat show I do now’

JAMES says editing The Sun was a perfect grounding for creating his hit US show.
He became our boss for the day for a one-off Sport Relief special edition in 2014 which featured his exclusive interview with then PM David Cameron.
And he took the skills honed on his stint inside The Sun’s newsroom, right, to help transform The Late Late Show into one of the most watched shows on TV.
He said: “I find working on a show like this the most similar an atmosphere to that, which is you start the day with a smattering of stories and ideas then you start the clock.
“Then, as the day goes on and the time rolls away, you start thinking, ‘Ah, OK, maybe this should be up top and maybe we should put this later and this here’.
“I can remember plotting where things should be in the paper. It feels a bit like that on a show every day. It’s the nature of a day having a start and an end point where at the start anything could happen and at the end something very really has to be produced.
“I find myself thinking about what you guys do quite a lot while we’re here doing this.”

And the doting dad says: “One of the factors in doing this job is that the life that it gives me with my family in that I just can’t bear being away from them.

“The truth is before, when I was acting, I’d go to film something in South Africa and you might be away for a month. That’s just not something I find very pleasurable.

“Like I had quite a late night last night but being able to get up and take my son to school and talk to him on the way and drop him off. And then I’ll be back tonight to either put him or my eldest daughter down to bed is an absolute luxury which isn’t lost on me.

I don’t know how long I’ll do this job for and I would hope, touch wood, that there would be a career for me to do something afterwards.